New Tekken 7 character Lucky Chloe was introduced during a recent series anniversary livestream. Here’s a video of the new character in action, captured from the presentation:

The character hasn’t been publicised outside the stream, apparently because she is exclusive to Japan and East Asia. We learned this from series creator Katsuhiro Harada, replying on Twitter to fans.

This is where things get kind of weird. You see, a fan linked Harada to a NeoGAF thread criticising the character. Many Tekken fans in the thread expressed their dislike of the character, describing her as annoying and silly. Others got in touch with Harada directly on Twitter, and requested the ability to block online matches with characters like her.

Harada did not react well. In a series of lengthy tweets, he repeatedly pointed out thet Lucky Chloe is just one of a number of new characters, and proceeded to imply that US gaming fans are only interested in one kind of character: big beefsteak men.

“By the way, Are you Western only bulletin board? Hello small world. I’ll make a muscular and skinhead character for you,” he said.

“Calm down and don’t worry. That character are East Asia and Europe ‘exclusive’. And I’ll say again. We’ve more new characters in TK7. She is JUST one of them.”

When some fans reacted with confusion to the news that the character would be a regonal exclusive, Harada replied:

“Because you don’t need that character right? It’s simple thing. And I’ll say ‘Don’t worry’ again. I’ll release another character for you guys.

“I said we’ve more new characters. Example: Looks well-muscled, skin-head, very powerful attack (I don’t like this idea but if you need).”

Harada seems absolutely serious about this, too.

I'm always serious. If you don't need = I don't release them. If you need = I'll release. That's all. RT @jdevilb I hope you are not serious

What makes all this so frustrating is that western fans certainly aren’t a homogenous bunch, and many would welcome a “cute”-type character to Tekken 7. After all, the franchise has in the past featured an actual panda, a farting dinosaur, and various other pretty ridiculous things. Heck, if you let yourself thing about it for too long, the whole concept starts to feel a bit ridiculous, even as your teenage heart continues to beat worshipfully over how “cool” Yoshimitsu or Jun are.

It rankles that Bandai Namco should make territory exclusive characters based on its idea of what a market wants rather than its creators’ desires, and that “what a market wants” equates to what a bunch of cynical NeoGAF members think about a young, energetic female character appearing in their video game. This industry, people: it’s a weird one, and unfortunately it’s often the case that one demographic gets the focus-tested casting vote on what the rest of us get to experience. Endless space marines for all!

Tekken 7 has not yet been given a console release date. At present, we know only that it will hit Japanese arcades in early 2015.

This article has been updated to correct an error; Lucky Chloe is also coming to Europe. TwitLonger links: 1, 2

]]>http://www.vg247.com/2014/12/08/new-tekken-7-character-wont-be-coming-west/feed/0Tekken Team is making a PS4 Project Morpheus game – first screens herehttp://www.vg247.com/2014/09/01/tekken-team-is-making-a-ps4-project-morpheus-game-first-screens-here/
http://www.vg247.com/2014/09/01/tekken-team-is-making-a-ps4-project-morpheus-game-first-screens-here/#commentsMon, 01 Sep 2014 07:46:40 +0000http://www.vg247.com/?p=489238The creator of Tekken, Katsuhiro Harada, is making a game for Sony’s Project Morpheus.
Summer Lesson is a “communication” game according to Harada, who took to the stage at Sony’s pre-Tokyo Game Show press conference today, to reveal the project.

There are a few screens here to be getting along with, and we’ll be getting hands/eyes on with the title when TGS kicks off on September 18.

]]>http://www.vg247.com/2014/09/01/tekken-team-is-making-a-ps4-project-morpheus-game-first-screens-here/feed/0Drama surrounding the Mishima clan comes to a head in Tekken 7http://www.vg247.com/2014/07/26/tekken-7-mishima-ps3-xbox-360-comic-con/
http://www.vg247.com/2014/07/26/tekken-7-mishima-ps3-xbox-360-comic-con/#commentsSat, 26 Jul 2014 13:30:10 +0000http://www.vg247.com/?p=484388It appears fans looking forward to Tekken 7 may finally learn more about the Devil Gene and its origins. Maybe.

The trailer posted below is the extended version of the one shown at EVO 2014 last week. It reveals the storyline of the game a “new key character” of the series, Kazumi Mishima. She is the wife of Heihachi Mishima and mother of Kazuya Mishima.

The byline for the video on YouTube states that “the final battle is about to begin,” and producer Katsuhiro Harada said himself at a panel during San Diego Comic Con Tekken 7 would “serve as the conclusion of the Mishima clan saga,” per Polygon.

He also said the game would provide a very through backstory and will hopefully explain why Heihachi wants to kill his grandson, as well as other Tekken mysteries.

The game will feature one-on-one battles and characters will be designed by seven guest artists one of which is Ninnin (Vanguard), who will provide the redesign of Lars from Tekken 6: Bloodline Rebellion.

Tekken 7 is an Unreal Engine 4 game and is without a release date.

]]>http://www.vg247.com/2014/07/26/tekken-7-mishima-ps3-xbox-360-comic-con/feed/0Tekken producer hopes to announce two new titles this yearhttp://www.vg247.com/2014/01/02/tekken-producer-hopes-to-announce-two-new-titles-this-year/
http://www.vg247.com/2014/01/02/tekken-producer-hopes-to-announce-two-new-titles-this-year/#commentsThu, 02 Jan 2014 01:08:36 +0000http://www.vg247.com/?p=436827Tekken series producer and creator Katsuhiro Harada plans on getting back to work on new games this year.

In a Japanese interview translated by Siliconera, Harada said that after a year of focusing on promotion and developing Namco Bandai’s free-to-play catalogue with Sony, he’s hoping to get back to work at his “main job” of making games.

“Tekken is one of my life’s works, and while I can’t say much here, together with the titles we were going to announce this year, I’m also working on several other titles simultaneously with Tekken,” he said.

“From there, I’d like to announce at least two of those titles in 2014, and I feel that it’s something I must do.”

Harada said that Namco Bandai has “a few titles” that it’s “been quietly working on”, as well as some it’s “been thinking about working on”, so 2014 “looks like it’ll be a tough one”.

The producer sounds keen to get back into development, commenting that he might ask fans on twitter for help when he gets stuck.

“I’ve had to be part of way too many mysterious jobs and non-paying holiday gigs. For the year 2014, I’d like to focus more on my main job, so please continue supporting us,” he said.

I mean, PS4 isn’t even out yet, but it’s fun to speculate isn’t it? That’s exactly what Harada has been doing in this week’s issue of Famitsu.

Translated by DualShockers, the article saw Harada laying down his vision of what the next-next PlayStation might be.

He said, “I think in the future things will be played on the service, rather than on the hardware. The Cloud is often mentioned, and if cloud services progress, the time when only the name of the service will remain will come some day.

“The PS5 Probably Won’t Have a main console, but just the screen and controller. So what remains will be just the name of the service. It could be named just “PlayStation network”. Steam is defined a platform, but it’s not a hardware platform. It’s the name of the service.”

You know what? I agree with him. This could actually be possible. But what do you think?

Thanks Dragon.

]]>http://www.vg247.com/2013/10/08/playstation-5-probably-wont-be-console-itll-be-a-cloud-service-says-tekkens-harada/feed/50PSN Europe gets massive PS3 fighting game sale, full price list herehttp://www.vg247.com/2013/05/22/psn-europe-gets-massive-ps3-fighting-game-sale-full-price-list-here/
http://www.vg247.com/2013/05/22/psn-europe-gets-massive-ps3-fighting-game-sale-full-price-list-here/#commentsWed, 22 May 2013 10:59:21 +0000http://www.vg247.com/?p=369511Sony has published details of a huge fighting game sale on PSN, fierce dragon-punching money off the price of many PS3 brawlers from now until June 5.

The details were posted on PS Blog EU this morning Here’s the full sale list:

PlayStation 3 (with additional 10% discount for PS Plus subscribers)

Double Dragon Neon
Was €7.99/£6.49, now €3.99/£3.19

Final Fight: Double Impact
Was €9.99/£7.99, now €4.99/£3.99

Golden Axe
Was€4.49/£3.69, now €1.99/£1.59

Lord of the Rings: War in the North
Was €19.99/£15.99, now €9.99/£7.99

PS3 (no additional PS Plus discount)

EA Sports MMA
Was €29.99/£19.99, now €9.99/£7.99

Fight Night Champion
Was €29.99/£19.99, now €14.99/£11.99

See anything you like? Let us know below.

]]>http://www.vg247.com/2013/05/22/psn-europe-gets-massive-ps3-fighting-game-sale-full-price-list-here/feed/2Street Fighter x Tekken Version 2013 videos show changes to Juri, Jin, Hwoarang, Lili, and Marshall Lawhttp://www.vg247.com/2013/01/26/street-fighter-x-tekken-version-2013-videos-show-changes-to-juri-jin-hwoarang-lili-and-marshall-law/
http://www.vg247.com/2013/01/26/street-fighter-x-tekken-version-2013-videos-show-changes-to-juri-jin-hwoarang-lili-and-marshall-law/#commentsSat, 26 Jan 2013 22:05:59 +0000http://www.vg247.com/?p=333466Another batch of Street Fighter x Tekken Version 2013 update videos have been released by Capcom Fighters over on Capcom Unity. The videos show off some of the changes coming to Juri, Jin, Hwoarang, Lili, and Marshall Law. The patch is expected to go live in four days on January 29, so be on the look out for the official patch notes. Until then, you can look over the list of changes complied by players through here.
]]>http://www.vg247.com/2013/01/26/street-fighter-x-tekken-version-2013-videos-show-changes-to-juri-jin-hwoarang-lili-and-marshall-law/feed/1A history of violence: Harada on his Tekken careerhttp://www.vg247.com/2012/11/15/a-history-of-violence-harada-on-his-tekken-career/
http://www.vg247.com/2012/11/15/a-history-of-violence-harada-on-his-tekken-career/#commentsThu, 15 Nov 2012 08:17:37 +0000http://www.vg247.com/?p=314462Tekken has been a fighting institution since the series launched across arcades in 1994. Dave Cook speaks with chief producer Katsuhiro Harada on the series’s birth and evolution.

The original Tekken is the reason many gamers bought their first PlayStation. Namco’s fighter helped to drive a wedge between 16-bit consoles and Sony’s juggernaut, proving that the age of SNES and Mega Drive was coming to a close.

While Sega and Nintendo scrambled around with CD add-ons, Super FX Chips and 32X ports, Sony and Namco were forging a partnership that would see the Tekken series become one of the PlayStation’s flagship brands.

Today the series boasts six core instalments, a handful of movie tie-ins and a dedicated fan base. Namco’s most recent release Tekken Tag Tournament 2 launched in September, and at the start of November Namco revealed that it had sold close to a million copies.

There’s clearly a lot of love for the series out there today, so VG247 spoke with Namco’s chief producer of fighting games Katsuhiro Harada to discuss Tekken’s legacy, and how he helped mould it into one of the most iconic brawlers of our time.

Polygon consideration

Harada truly is one of those ‘rockstar’ developers that the gaming populace knows by name and face alone. He frequents fighting tournaments, speaks with fans regularly over Twitter, and of course he really does know his fighting games.

Things didn’t always start out this way for the developer. In fact, the original Tekken started out as an experiment into modelling with polygons and was never intended to be a fighting game at all. That decision only came after Harada and the team saw the potential of the arcade tech it was working with.

Harada recalled, “Originally, Tekken was not assumed to be a fighting game in modern times. but it had more of a meaning in investigating ’3D model animation control’ and ‘shaping human body polygons’ that would be needed in the years to come, since at that time we were still in the pre-dawn of polygons.

“For that reason, many human resources came together at Namco and started to do basic research, which was the catalyst.” That ‘catalyst’ would see Tekken created for arcades and launched in December 1994, and by this point Harada and his team had already been tinkering around with the brand new PlayStation hardware in order to create a home port for release in 1995.

“Technology wise, we couldn’t do the scaling for the lower body of Jack, so that is why his upper body is so big with such a small lower body. In addition to that, he has an infinite combo. That’s not even fixed. Don’t you think that’s awful?”

“Namco was originally a development company for arcade games,” Harada explained. “Before the PlayStation console was released, we were co-developing the arcade board called SYSTEM 11 with Sony and already had the arcade working, so I could say that the change to PlayStation was smooth.

Harada added, “The technological challenges were that it was the first fighting game using texture on the polygons, and 60FPS portrayals,” underlining that Namco was – at the time – working at what was the bleeding edge of early PlayStation technology.

Visuals and high frame rate are one thing, but as Harada suggests, his team weren’t yet the fighting game maestros they are today, and as such character creation proved problematic, “As for the adjustment in the characters, we didn’t have any know-how at that time, making it disastrous. So it could be said that none of the characters were fun and all of them were difficult.”

One character in particular caused Harada and his team a lot of grief, “Actually, technology wise, we couldn’t do the scaling for the lower body of Jack, so that is why his upper body is so big with such a small lower body. In addition to that, he has an infinite combo. That’s not even fixed. Don’t you think that’s awful? Mostly all the characters had a combo that made the opponent instantly down.”

Ah the dreaded infinite combos. Even then they were a thorn in Namco’s backside. But regardless Harada and his team were confident that Tekken would be a big success, and Sony was backing them every step of the way. “Everyone was feeling the new era,” Harada recalled. “Especially for the polygon technology, Namco was one or two steps ahead of everyone in the world, and both Sony and Namco understood that.

“A while later, Mr. Kutaragi – who was president at Sony at that time – wrote in his book that one of the three keys in making PlayStation a success was to collaborate with Namco. That was probably true indeed.”

Tekken take two

After Tekken proved to be a big hit on PlayStation, while seeing less-than-expected returns in arcades, it was clear to Namco and Sony that the series should remain on the console. Harada’s team was commissioned to create a sequel as soon as work wrapped on the original, and then ambition for the franchise started to run hot.

With Tekken 2, Harada started to put his understanding of the fighting genre to the test. He explained, “The goal was to gain status as a fighting game, as well as aiming for a benchmark title to prove development and technological power, putting in as much new technology as possible.

“As for the hardware, we were used to it. We had more trouble compressing the data or placing the data on the CD when porting it onto console, since the arcade version came with a board with lots of memory.”

When Tekken 2 launched in 1996 it raised standards considerably with an expanded character roster of 25, more detailed arenas and command lists that boggled the mind. Take cop Lei Wulong for example: his multi-stance move set delivered incredible depth that was foreign to the fighting genre at the time.

“When we were porting Tekken Tag Tournament, which we developed on SYSTEM 12 at that time, we even portrayed each of the teeth in the human models’ mouths with polygons.Thinking back, it was a total waste of polygons.”

Few can deny that in Tekken 2, Namco had delivered a sequel that far surpassed the original game. But it was only when the Tekken 3 home port launched in 1998 that the developer’s mastery of the PlayStation format reached a peak.

The game was a technical marvel and received widespread critical acclaim for its outstanding visuals, immense depth and new fighters including Hwoarang, Xiaoyu, Jin and Eddy Gordo. Each figher delivered diverse move sets and styles, but tweaks made to existing fighters proved that Harada’s team were becoming experts in the field of fighting games.

Harada stressed that the game’s development was troublesome, “It started from an advanced board that has even more memory than PlayStation at that time called SYSTEM 12, so it was even more difficult to port than ever.

With many Namco employees leaving the company to pursue new roles elsewhere, Harada’s team shrunk, and competition from Sega’s technically accomplished Virtua Fighter series was heating up. Regardless, the developer finished the job, and a PlayStation hit was born.

“When we finished porting Tekken 3 to consoles, the title became a tremendous hit, creating many records and receiving praise from many people. However, the development team actually had mixed feelings like, ‘It’s not 100% ported, and there were many things that we could have still done, but why is it receiving such high ratings from everyone?”

It’s quite heartwarming to see that Harada and his team weren’t bullish in their approach to make a leading brawler, and despite the fact that Tekken 3 entered Sony’s Platinum/Classics range, he still views it as an imperfect release.

Individual teeth

But something big was brewing at Sony and it wasn’t long after Tekken 3′s release that Namco were given a taste of PlayStation 2 hardware. The plan to create a Tekken game for the launch of PS2 saw Harada running wild on polygon counts and detail.

Porting Tekken Tag Tournament was both liberating and challenging said Harada, “We had an envious dilemma where we were wondering where we should use the over-abundant capability, since the hardware’s capability had improved so much.

“We were suddenly told that the number of polygons we could use had increased, and we could overlap translucence as much as we wanted,” he explained, “So when we were porting Tekken Tag Tournament, which we developed on SYSTEM 12 at that time, we even portrayed each of the teeth in the human models’ mouths with polygons.

“Thinking back, it was a total waste of polygons. That is why the game models in Tekken 4 have a higher perfection level than the game models in Tekken Tag Tournament, even though the number of polygons are less.”

Harada’s teeth anecdote is interesting because it shows that visuals aren’t everything – especially in fighting games – and with so much raw power to play with, Harada’s franchise needed more than just better visuals to hold the interest of gamers.

“Everyone was feeling the new era. Especially for the polygon technology, Namco was one or two steps ahead of everyone in the world, and both Sony and Namco understood that.”

With Tekken 4 Harada and his team started to experiment with new gameplay mechanics such as wall slams in an attempt to shake up the format. Harada understands that reaction to the game was mixed and believes that the feedback was not always constructive, comprised of gamers reacting harshly without suggesting improvements.

Regardless Tekken 4 could be viewed as the most ambitious outing of the series, and saw the narrative expanded considerably – something that few fighting games delivered at the time. Since the series started there was a sense of accomplishment that came with completing the game and viewing each character’s ending cinematic.

Are such stories vital to fighting games? We pose the question to Harada, “The main character of a fighting game is always the player community, but as for us, unless the characters in the game has a strong will and fighting spirit, we thought that they will be less represented.”

At this point we simply had to ask Harada which of his treasured characters has wound up being his favourite. The answer was more than unexpected, ” I normally answer ‘Heihachi’. But did you know that the character popularity is fairly different among the countries? But what’s interesting is that there is a character that is always lowest in popularity worldwide over the 17 years. It’s Ganryu. Thus, I have decided to answer ‘Ganryu’ whenever I am asked which is my favorite character.”

Harada x Ono

Part of Harada’s fan-facing popularity comes with his collaboration with Street Fighter director Yoshinori Ono, another prominent character on the fighting game circuit. At events the two appear to be the best of friends, so we asked Harada if this image accurately represents reality.

“We have known each other from more than ten years ago. We had a near miss at game shows and there were many opportunities to see each other for Japanese game magazines. However, it was only four or five years ago that we became friendly and started talking. Until then, we had never exchanged words.

“As Ono viewed it, he said I looked like a ‘Very grumpy and abrupt person indeed’. The first time we spoke to each other was at a stage event within a game show somewhere. Publicly, we are said to be similar types, but Ono and I are actually completely opposite of each other.

“I do like Capcom’s games. I especially like Street Fighter. As for how they treated the Tekken characters, I believed in them from the beginning and I like how they are being treated this time. It’s really interesting when another company is using your character.”

“What’s interesting is even if both of our answers is ‘A’, when we talk about the process of concluding to the answer ‘A’, we completely differ with one another. Despite his looks, Ono is what I’d call an ‘overwhelming back calculation type’ whereas I am more of an ‘instinct type’”.

Seeing the captains of two of the world’s greatest franchises – and thereby direct competitors collaborating in such a manner has given both developers a chance to bounce ideas off each other and of course to combine their respective games in Capcom’s Street Fighter x Tekken, which Harada revealed was conceptualised over dinner.

“It was fast. Doing the collaboration itself was decided within the two hour meal we had together. Everything is in an instant. There was almost no discussion or fuss. We both respect the good part of the others’ company.”

Speaking of respect, Harada applauded the way his creations were treated by Capcom in the crossover, and he never had any doubt that Ono would mistreat the Tekken roster “I do like Capcom’s games. I especially like Street Fighter. As for how they treated the Tekken characters, I believed in them from the beginning and I like how they are being treated this time. It’s really interesting when another company is using your character.”

We ask Harada for his approach to Ono’s Street Fighter roster when developing the next cross-over between both franchises Tekken x Street Fighter. But as predicted he was careful not to reveal too much, “The progress of Tekken x Street Fighter is a secret. The philosophy behind involving the Street Fighter characters? It’s simple, we are huge fans of Street Fighter in the first place. Thus, we only need to polish it so that the fans will be satisfied and happy.”

Nobody’s perfect.

To cap off our conversation we ask Harada for his thoughts on why he feels the Tekken series has remained as popular as it has over the years, and for a run-down of his proudest moments so far. First, he expressed regret over Tekken 4, and argued that changing something just because fans say so is wrong. he believes you need to really look at the reasons behind complaints before making a change.

“I believe that we have failed at times and are not always succeeding. Especially for Tekken 4, the sales were high but the player rating was bad. What’s important is how the user feedbacks are taken in. Stopping what the users say ‘no’ to, or erasing what they say they dislike, looks correct at first glance, but is actually not correct.”

And about those proudest moments? Harada has it pinned down, “The achievement in [Tekken] sales in arcades and the sales on consoles have recorded number one in the world. This means that, whether the rating is good or bad, the fact is that many games are being looked at.”

Tekken Tag Tournament 2: Wii U Edition is Harada’s next release, due across Europe from November 30th.

]]>http://www.vg247.com/2012/11/15/a-history-of-violence-harada-on-his-tekken-career/feed/4Tekken Tag Tournament 2 tutorial videos feature Angel and Ancient Ogrehttp://www.vg247.com/2012/09/07/tekken-tag-tournament-2-tutorial-videos-feature-angel-and-ancient-ogre/
http://www.vg247.com/2012/09/07/tekken-tag-tournament-2-tutorial-videos-feature-angel-and-ancient-ogre/#commentsFri, 07 Sep 2012 19:03:01 +0000http://www.vg247.com/?p=294955Tekken Tag Tournament 2 has two more tutorial videos available for you to watch. One is for Angel and the other Ancient Ogre. Each character are pre-order DLC characters. Tekken Tag Tournament 2 launches September 10 in North America and September 14 in the UK on PS3 and Xbox 360.

In an interview at the conference, Katsuhiro Harada introduced a new mode that lets you move the soundtrack around, swap character select screen music, and change it for a stage theme.

You can also import your own songs from disc or USB on PS3 and Xbox 360. A demonstration took place, showcasing fight music from Namco classics Mappy and Xevious.

PSN users will get Tekken Tag Tournament 2 OST for free at launch, and the soundtrack from previous games will be available in Tekken Tunes mode for a cost.

]]>http://www.vg247.com/2012/08/15/tekken-tag-tournament-2-to-feature-3d-support-and-tekken-tunes/feed/0Tekken creator “can’t continue to engage the negative” fanshttp://www.vg247.com/2012/06/26/tekken-creator-can%e2%80%99t-continue-to-engage-the-negative-fans/
http://www.vg247.com/2012/06/26/tekken-creator-can%e2%80%99t-continue-to-engage-the-negative-fans/#commentsTue, 26 Jun 2012 04:38:21 +0000http://www.vg247.com/?p=272386Katsuhiro Harada seems to have reached the end of his patience when it comes to the constant complaints and demands of Tekken fans.

The Namco veteran posted a lengthy rant to Twitter asking fans to think before voicing negative comments, and refusing to engage with detractors any further.

“I believe that, before whining and complaining about everything, you need practice at taking a step back and analyzing things objectively. And also at being an adult,” Harada said, apparently in response to fan complaints about voice actors.

Harada then provided a lengthy explanation for why voice actors change over time, noting that even when Namco continues using original recorded data fans complain that the sound has changed.

“I have even complied to the requests of you all spamming me to ‘bring back characters’ from previous instalments. You often say, ‘Let’s show the dev team how sincere we are by buying two copies if they bring back character X’, but did you really go through with it?” Harada added, segueing into another frequent source of arguments with players.

“I will continue to sincerely comply with fan requests. However, I can’t continue to engage the negative ones that, without knowing what you are talking about, or even thinking about what you are saying, blindly repeat ‘bring back, bring back, bring back…’

“After this lengthy explanation, I will be quite surprised if there are still people who still don’t get it. Thanks for understanding or not understanding. Whatever,” the frustrated developed concluded.

Despite language barriers, Harada is among one of the most responsive development figures, often spending hours engaging with fans and detractors on Twitter and through other social and community forums.

]]>http://www.vg247.com/2012/06/26/tekken-creator-can%e2%80%99t-continue-to-engage-the-negative-fans/feed/7Tekken creator pours cold water on film reporthttp://www.vg247.com/2012/05/21/tekken-creator-pours-cold-water-on-film-report/
http://www.vg247.com/2012/05/21/tekken-creator-pours-cold-water-on-film-report/#commentsMon, 21 May 2012 00:36:58 +0000http://www.vg247.com/?p=260282Asked about the possibility of a new live action Tekken film, as reportedly announced during the Cannes festival, franchise creator Katsuhiro Harada tweeted what seems like a partial denial, asking fans not to go “jumping the gun” in believing rumours. The first Tekken film was quite poorly received, with Harada himself judging it “terrible”.
]]>http://www.vg247.com/2012/05/21/tekken-creator-pours-cold-water-on-film-report/feed/1Rumor – Angel, Ogre, Kunimitsu included in Tekken Tag Tournament 2http://www.vg247.com/2012/05/19/rumor-%e2%80%93-angel-ogre-and-kunimitsu-included-in-tekken-tag-tournament-2/
http://www.vg247.com/2012/05/19/rumor-%e2%80%93-angel-ogre-and-kunimitsu-included-in-tekken-tag-tournament-2/#commentsSat, 19 May 2012 18:46:41 +0000http://www.vg247.com/?p=260163Character renders for Angel, Ogre, and Kunimitsu popped up on Gamespot yesterday in the assets section for Tekken Tag Tournament 2. The shots were quickly removed, as the character haven’t been announced for the title as of yet, but Shoryuken quickly grabbed the shots before removal. Go have a look. TTT2 launches on PS3 and Xbox 360 in September.
]]>http://www.vg247.com/2012/05/19/rumor-%e2%80%93-angel-ogre-and-kunimitsu-included-in-tekken-tag-tournament-2/feed/0Prequel to 2010 Tekken film in the workshttp://www.vg247.com/2012/05/18/prequel-to-2010-tekken-film-in-the-works/
http://www.vg247.com/2012/05/18/prequel-to-2010-tekken-film-in-the-works/#commentsFri, 18 May 2012 19:26:15 +0000http://www.vg247.com/?p=260047The Hollywood Reporter has a story up stating that Ong Bak director Prachya Pinkaew will be lending his talents Tekken: Rise of the Tournament. The film is to be a prequel to the 2010 movie Tekken. The report also states the casting director is going to choose actors who resemble their in-game counterparts instead of going after more familiar stars. A release window or production schedule wasn’t provided.
]]>http://www.vg247.com/2012/05/18/prequel-to-2010-tekken-film-in-the-works/feed/3Street Fighter X Tekken videos and shots reveal six new charactershttp://www.vg247.com/2012/01/17/street-fighter-x-tekken-videos-and-shots-reveal-six-new-characters/
http://www.vg247.com/2012/01/17/street-fighter-x-tekken-videos-and-shots-reveal-six-new-characters/#commentsTue, 17 Jan 2012 17:26:59 +0000http://www.vg247.com/?p=227052Capcom has released a new set of Street Fighter X Tekken screenshots, artwork and videos for your consideration. Posted below the break, you will find a gallery with images featuring Balrog, Juri and Vega from the Street Fighter series, along with Paul, Law and Xiaoyu from the Tekken franchise. Be sure to check out the videos below as well, as there are a couple surprises for you: Mega Man and Pacman. SFxT releases on PS3 and Xbox 360 in North America on March 6 and on March 9 in Europe. Details on regarding the Vita and PC versions “will be announced soon.”

]]>http://www.vg247.com/2012/01/17/street-fighter-x-tekken-videos-and-shots-reveal-six-new-characters/feed/0Harada talks Tekken’s humble beginningshttp://www.vg247.com/2011/10/26/harada-talks-of-tekkens-humble-beginnings/
http://www.vg247.com/2011/10/26/harada-talks-of-tekkens-humble-beginnings/#commentsWed, 26 Oct 2011 13:54:46 +0000http://www.vg247.com/?p=211892Speaking to Gamasutra, Tekken director Katsuhiro Harada has described the small ideas from which the mighty Tekken series grew.

Katsuhiro Harada was present at Namco way back when the original Tekken hit Sony’s new-kid-on-the-block-PlayStation in 1994. Now, 17 years later and with the spotlight currently shining on Namco and Capcom’s “hands-off collaborative” projects Tekken X Street Fighter and Street Fighter X Tekken, Harada has talked about how some of the design decisions came to be made for the iconic brawler.

“…Namco had been conducting a lot of R&D into polygon-based graphics, and the consensus we had was that true-to-life animation was going to become a huge aspect of game graphics going into the future. That turned out to be very true, of course,” Harada told Gamasutra. “The limb-based control scheme sort of grew from that, but the scheme also felt really good for a fighter — you could execute these one-two punch combos really quickly and intuitively.”

Harada acknowledged that whilst the more traditional three-strength attack system – as seen in Street Fighter – is a good system it “wasn’t really appropriate for a game trying to encompass a really large variety of martial arts like what we were aiming for.”

In talking of blurring fantasy and reality within the Tekken universe, Harada explained that the key concept was not to recreate bouts that could take place in the real-world, but to keep a consistent feeling of what was realistic within the game world.

“We certainly realize that “realism,” as defined within the bounds of this game, can be a very different thing from what would happen in real life,” he said. “Rocky, for example, is a film that a lot of people liked — but that was a work of fiction, and real-life boxers would never use really flashy moves like that in an actual match. It’s not “real” realism so much as “wouldn’t it be nice if things were like this” realism. That’s what we aim for here, this manga or movie-like atmosphere that has impact upon the observer. We try to portray what people expect of the reality they see within games.”

To close, Harada had a stab at trying to succinctly sum up the Tekken story line.

“Basically, there’re these three generations of father and son that don’t get along, and two of them have this Devil Gene, so their dad wants to know what the Devil Gene is, and so they argue with each other about it for a bunch of years. All the other characters just sort of get caught up in it.”

Apparently speaking at an event in France, as reported by Gamekyo, series producer Katsuhiro Harada said the core Tekken development team hasn’t started on the project.

Rather, the project is in the hands of a separate team devoted to checking out new technology, currently evaluating the new console. The game will be the first Tekken title to grace Nintendo’s home console range.

“Once this assessment and the various research projects completed, they send us these results and we can look more specifically above. But we are not at this stage today,” Harada said.

“The project is still in its infancy.”

Harada asked Nintendo fans to focus on Tekken 3D: Prime Edition in the meantime; the portable incarnation is due in February.

No release date has been set for the Wii U, although it is expected in northern summer 2012.

]]>http://www.vg247.com/2011/10/05/wii-u-tekken-still-in-pre-production/feed/0Quick quotes: Harada saddened by Iack of Tekken trash-talking from Itagakihttp://www.vg247.com/2011/10/04/quick-quotes-harada-saddened-by-iack-of-tekken-trash-talking-from-itagaki/
http://www.vg247.com/2011/10/04/quick-quotes-harada-saddened-by-iack-of-tekken-trash-talking-from-itagaki/#commentsTue, 04 Oct 2011 13:44:46 +0000http://www.vg247.com/?p=206848“I’m thinking about Itagaki and when [former 1UP editor and Q Entertainment's James Mielke] was with you guys that was a big topic — the ‘what are your five most hated games?’ article where he said 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 were all Tekken, right? If Itagaki was still making Dead or Alive, I’d like to ask, out of all the current Tekken titles we have planned, what’s his favorite. His answer would probably be Dead or Alive anyway, and that he hates all Tekken, but it’d be an interesting question. In the past, Itagaki had always mentioned various things about Tekken and stuff, especially on 1UP in his articles with [Mielke]. And there were a few times when I got pissed at what I saw, but I’m kind of realizing that when I saw what he was saying — after he quit Team Ninja, I think he was asked about fighting games and what he thought, and apparently Itagaki said, ‘Well I don’t make fighting games anymore, so I’m not really in a place to comment on that’ — I felt kind of sad when I saw that.” – Tekken creator Katsuhiro Harada, speaking to 1UP about Dead or Alive creator Tomonobu Itagaki’s infamous trash-talking of the series.
]]>http://www.vg247.com/2011/10/04/quick-quotes-harada-saddened-by-iack-of-tekken-trash-talking-from-itagaki/feed/1Street Fighter x Tekken a “carnival of both games,” says Onohttp://www.vg247.com/2011/10/04/street-fighter-x-tekken-a-carnival-of-both-games-says-ono/
http://www.vg247.com/2011/10/04/street-fighter-x-tekken-a-carnival-of-both-games-says-ono/#commentsTue, 04 Oct 2011 08:40:06 +0000http://www.vg247.com/?p=206779It shows.

Street Fighter boss Yoshinori Ono has said he considers the coming together of Street Fighter and Tekken as a “carnival” of both games, noting the fun the characters are having when thrown together.

“Obviously, this game, we look at it as a carnival or festival of both of these games,” he told GameSpot AU at Tokyo Game Show.

“The characters are kinda thrown together and having a lot of fun. For the Street Fighter side, we and the team are very, very confidant that we could cover that and use our knowledge of the Street Fighter characters in the universe to make something really, really interesting and cool.”

Don’t get too left out yet, Tekken massive: you’re being catered to as well.

“For the Tekken characters, just in terms of the basic feel and how they should be feeling when you play, we could obviously ask the Tekken team, we could get a lot of feedback from them and see what they thought about it. That was very, very useful, but one of the biggest challenges we had, one of the things we found to be the most interesting, was how to give [Tekken players] the chance to enjoy Street Fighter characters in a way that didn’t feel too dissimilar, but also felt like Street Fighter,” Ono continued.

“One of the big systems that we have that let us do that is the cross-rush system. Obviously, Tekken is a game where you’re very physically and aggressively attacking with combos, and there’s a rhythm to it with the strong combos. And the cross-rush system allows Tekken players to do that in a comfortable way within a Street Fighter game.

“There’s some other systems as well that have grown out of exactly that, just thinking about how to get both groups satisfied and providing an experience that both can feel familiar with and also a little bit something new with.”

Street Fighter x Tekken launches next year for PS3, 360 and Vita.

]]>http://www.vg247.com/2011/10/04/street-fighter-x-tekken-a-carnival-of-both-games-says-ono/feed/1Tekken 3D: Prime Edition shots get out of TGS 2011http://www.vg247.com/2011/09/14/tekken-3d-prime-edition-shots-get-out-of-tgs-2011/
http://www.vg247.com/2011/09/14/tekken-3d-prime-edition-shots-get-out-of-tgs-2011/#commentsWed, 14 Sep 2011 15:20:32 +0000http://www.vg247.com/?p=202567Namco has released a few shots of Tekken 3D: Prime Edition on 3DS. Upon release the game will include 40 characters, and a copy of the 3D CG film Tekken: Blood Vengeance. There isn’t and exact US date for this just yet, but GameStop has a placeholder of December 31 for it. We’ll send a mail. Thanks, D’toid.

]]>http://www.vg247.com/2011/09/14/tekken-3d-prime-edition-shots-get-out-of-tgs-2011/feed/0New Street Fighter X Tekken trailer releasedhttp://www.vg247.com/2011/08/15/new-street-fighter-x-tekken-trailer-released/
http://www.vg247.com/2011/08/15/new-street-fighter-x-tekken-trailer-released/#commentsMon, 15 Aug 2011 16:53:36 +0000http://www.vg247.com/?p=194324Capcom has released a brand new trailer for their upcoming brawler epic Street Fighter X Tekken. Apart from being unnaturally gorgeous, the trailer also shows off a gaggle of new characters. Be careful though as this trailer is actually slightly NSFW. Why is that? Because at about 3:55, a bear farts in Guile’s face. That’s not a joke. It’s horrifying.

]]>http://www.vg247.com/2011/08/15/new-street-fighter-x-tekken-trailer-released/feed/7Tuesday Shorts II: Tekken, Bungie, Atelier, FF Type-0, Rock of Ageshttp://www.vg247.com/2011/08/09/tuesday-shorts-ii-tekken-bungie-atelier-ff-type-0/
http://www.vg247.com/2011/08/09/tuesday-shorts-ii-tekken-bungie-atelier-ff-type-0/#commentsTue, 09 Aug 2011 20:36:24 +0000http://www.vg247.com/?p=192832If you thought the earlier shorts post was large, wait until you get a load of this one. Okay, we lied. It’s smaller – but not by much.

]]>http://www.vg247.com/2011/08/09/tuesday-shorts-ii-tekken-bungie-atelier-ff-type-0/feed/1Poison, Steve Fox and Yoshimitsu confirmed for Street Fighter x Tekkenhttp://www.vg247.com/2011/07/21/poison-steve-fox-and-yoshimitsu-confirmed-for-street-fighter-x-tekken/
http://www.vg247.com/2011/07/21/poison-steve-fox-and-yoshimitsu-confirmed-for-street-fighter-x-tekken/#commentsThu, 21 Jul 2011 16:43:03 +0000http://www.vg247.com/?p=188200It’s official: Poison, Steve Fox and Yoshimitsu will be playable characters in Street Fighter x Tekken. Capcom revealed the news at Comic-Con this week, and has also released a cinematic trailer, gameplay trailer, and a fews screenshots. Still no exact date, but it’s next year sometime. Thanks, sf4db.

]]>http://www.vg247.com/2011/07/21/poison-steve-fox-and-yoshimitsu-confirmed-for-street-fighter-x-tekken/feed/15Street Fighter X Tekken teaser obviously shows Dhalsimhttp://www.vg247.com/2011/07/07/street-fighter-x-tekken-teaser-obviously-shows-dhalsim/
http://www.vg247.com/2011/07/07/street-fighter-x-tekken-teaser-obviously-shows-dhalsim/#commentsThu, 07 Jul 2011 17:20:29 +0000http://www.vg247.com/?p=184945As if the feet and all of the yellow don’t give it away as it is, Capcom has released another teaser for Street Fighter X Tekken. It is obviously Dhalsim, but you be the judge yourself in the video posted below. The game is slated for release sometime next year.

]]>http://www.vg247.com/2011/07/07/street-fighter-x-tekken-teaser-obviously-shows-dhalsim/feed/1Tekken creator interested in PS Vita possibilitieshttp://www.vg247.com/2011/06/14/tekken-creator-interested-in-ps-vita-possibilities/
http://www.vg247.com/2011/06/14/tekken-creator-interested-in-ps-vita-possibilities/#commentsTue, 14 Jun 2011 02:33:45 +0000http://www.vg247.com/?p=179627Katsuhiro Harada, the father of Tekken, doesn’t have anything in the works for PS Vita, but he’s intrigued by the possibility of GPS-based features for the fighter.

“We have so much Tekken at the moment … Even though there’s a list of things I would like to do, and Vita is one of them, it’s hard to do that at this point. But I’m interested in the hardware,” the producer told Eurogamer.

“… There are some ideas that interest me, such as the GPS feature.

“There’s a thing in Tekken called ghosts where a certain CPU character will have a player-like name and will perform in a way a human opponent might. They have a ranking and everything.

“So these ghosts, if you could perhaps leave your own ghost on a certain coordinate based on your GPS location, and another player, if they come to that location, they can battle your ghost or collect it or something.

“That would make it interesting to go to different locations and meet different ghosts and collect them. That’s one thing that interests me.”

Tekken Tag Tournament 2 arrives in Japanese arcade this summer, while the Capcom-developed Street Fighter x Tekken is the next cab off the ranks.

]]>http://www.vg247.com/2011/06/14/tekken-creator-interested-in-ps-vita-possibilities/feed/0Here a Tekken, there a Tekken, everywhere a Tekkenhttp://www.vg247.com/2011/06/07/here-a-tekken-there-a-tekken-everywhere-at-tekken/
http://www.vg247.com/2011/06/07/here-a-tekken-there-a-tekken-everywhere-at-tekken/#commentsTue, 07 Jun 2011 22:41:14 +0000http://www.vg247.com/?p=177958Loads of goodies were announced today for Tekken folks, and you really need to get caught up on all of it. Click the link below and become in the know.

Tekken Tag Tournament HD to release with Tekken Blood Vengeance 3D

Tekken Hybrid, a collection of the new full-length 3D compatible feature film Tekken Blood Vengeance 3D, Tekken Tag Tournament HD, and additional content yet to be announced, will be releasing on Blu-Ray exclusively for the PS3 this November. Tekken Tag Tournament HD is a high-definition remake of the PS2 classic, Tekken Tag Tournament.

Blood Vengeance 3D will first appear in 375 theaters across North America on July 26 before the Blu-Ray release and as a standalone DVD release. Vengeance 3D follows Xiaoyu Ling, martial artist and high school student, tasked by the G Corporation to infiltrate an international school in Kyoto to gather information on the mysterious student Shin Kamiya. Before she can make any progress in the investigation, Shin is kidnapped by an unknown assailant. Digging deeper into Shin’s background in an attempt to rescue him, Xiaoyu learns about the frightening underbelly of the Mishima Zaibatsu. Jin Kazama, Kazuya Mishima and the late Heihachi Mishima’s conspiracy that’s “stained with blood.”

Created in full CG, Blood Vengeance 3D is being produced by Digital Frontier with the screenplay written by Dai Sato and the score composed by Hitoshi Sakimoto. Youichi Mouri is the director.

Ryu, Ken, Chun-Li, Guile, Cammy, Abel, and Sagat were playable at E for Sreet Fighter, and over on th Tekken end, playable characters were Kazuya, Nina, King, Bob, Marduk, Hwoarang, and Julia. All of the characters teased so far are present in the game but of course its not a complete list of characters.

Players can “tag out” from a knocked down state, when the screen will flash a bit giving your opponent the knowledge that your fresh team mate is about to come in.

String combos were mentioned, but projectiles from Tekken fighters will have a move that will allow them to bypass projectiles. EX moves and Super Moves are in the game, Focus Attacks are not. There is a Super Meter and Super Moves will drain it.

Tekken games for the Wii U and 3DS

The Tekken Wii U title which was shown during the Nintendo conference and players draw on player faces, is called Tekken Wii Successor, the Wii U and 3Ds game includes character customization features using the controller’s touch screen to draw on faces. No date.

Street Fighter X Tekken – triple movie whammy

It lives. All these movies are in 720p. Check them out on Youtube for the full effect – it’s worth it.

The collision of the Street Fighter and Tekken universes is as big as fighting games will ever be, but the move instantly drew concerns about melding the two series’ style. Yoshi Ono, the ever-enthusiastic project lead, explained to us last week in Miami why we shouldn’t be worried.

Characters in Street Fighter X Tekken come in pairs, as a tag team. You can choose whomever you wish to fight with, but the teams are automatically put together with their own stories as to why they are there and why they teamed up.

Pairs shown during Captivate were: Able and Guile; Ryu and Ken; Kazuya Mishima and Nina Williams; Craig Marduk and King; and Chun Li and Bob. More partners are to be announced at E3.

“As you can see, unlike normally with Capcom, we have announced ten characters at once,” said Ono through his translator. “More characters are to be revealed in large chunks like this throughout the rest of the year at various events.”

According to Ono, “there’s going to be tons in the game,” and he has even hinted around via Twitter that Kuma and Blanka will be included as well.

Between the two games there are a lot of characters which should be difficult to get working together, but Ono said there is a method to his team’s madness when choosing characters for SF X Tekken.

“Because of our criteria, we’re trying to find ones that will be the hardest, the most difficult, and require the most work to get them up and running because it not only makes it more fun for us, but it will make it a more compelling game in the end,” explained Ono.

“Out of the characters we revealed here, one of the more surprising might be Marduk. I mean, we’ve got some Street Fighter characters that have grappling techniques like him, but none who moves like he does using those kind of moves.

“But at E3 this year, and other events, we will be announcing plenty of characters who are maybe more out of left field than Marduk, and more surprising. There might be characters in your head you’re presuming will make it in, but you might actually also be second guessing yourself.

“In effect, the Tekken universe has some supremely weird characters.”

“In effect, the Tekken universe has some supremely weird characters. From inanimate objects, to animals, and all sorts of stuff. That might strike you as counter to Street Fighter characters, but it really isn’t. I mean, we’ve long had a guy with limbs that can stretch, or a guy that can throw fire out of his hands or whatnot, so to shove an animal in there or any other kind of wacky character wouldn’t be out of place. Indeed, it can make the game really interesting.

“If you are looking at the roster of Tekken characters and thinking some might not make it, broaden your search a bit and don’t just assume that some are going to be cut.”

Tag teams can be any two characters

Tag teams will not provide any specific advantage over another team. The characters are partnered up for storytelling purposes and to help set up rivalries; players can choose any combination they choose. If a player would rather have Ryu pair up with Chun Li or, for instance, King pair up with Bob, it can be done.

“Basically, there are no gameplay advantages to any particular team,” said Ono. “We don’t want to make that decision for player. We want them to set things up with any partnership they so choose. In fact, anyone can work with anyone, and you may find some unusual stuff by putting Ryu with King. It might seem like kind of an odd couple, but you could do some really cool combos together and you might find it to be a really strategic match.

“It’s a bit like Street Fighter III and IV, where you choose your combos and your Super Arts – it’s almost like here, where you pick your particular playstyle and it might motivate you to put a certain set of pairs together.

“That said, there are indeed kind of ‘official’ pairs. As to why they exist, it’s not a gameplay advantage. That’s just there to add in the storytelling aspect of things for characters within the story framework we have: why they are working together, why they are traveling together, and embarking on a quest against certain people.

“This gives us a chance to set up rivalries and a chance to tell a specific story about specific characters. You are completely free to move outside of that framework if you so choose.”

To reiterate, there’s no advantage, for example, of setting Ryu and Ken up. There’s no 50 percent power boot or anything, nor are there any specific combo additions with different pairs. Deciding which characters work well together depends entirely on your playstyle and what you want to do with them.

Gameplay, controls, characters

Street Fighter X Tekken is a tag-based fighter, so you can call in other characters and switch out at will. To switch between characters, you hold the punch and kick controls down at the same time. If you would like to switch over to Tekken characters, you hold down the select button for three seconds. You then switch between those characters the same way. To go back to SF play, once again hold down the select button.

Tekken’s traditional four-button control scheme has been implemented for its characters. When playing Street Fighter characters, the traditional six-button configuration has stayed the same.

However, if you are playing a Tekken character, but want the six-button configuration, it will result in a mixture between the two games’ fighting styles. This was decided so as to lower the entry barrier to non-fighting players, Tekken fans, or just folks in general who have not played a fighting game since PSone.

“Our goal was not to just copy the controls of Tekken but to also give it an extra layer,” said Ono. “Instead, we give you a combination of six-button Street Fighter moves and four-button Tekken moves all rolled into one.

“The mixture between Street Fighter and Tekken goes beyond the control scheme, and the gameplay itself. As you are aware, Tekken has a very distinct playstyle. Street Fighter has always been a little more slower-paced and a little more thoughtful, perhaps even more deliberate. It was always about keeping an eye on the distance between yourself and your opponent, making predictions about what they are going to do next and trying to react to that. It’s not quite as aggressive as something like Tekken.

“Tekken has always been faster-paced, and more aggressive. The competition really begins on the first hit, and then you have to start guessing where they are going to punch from next. There’s some of that in Street Fighter, but not as much, as it’s a little more reserved. It’s really two different kinds of gameplay styles.

“With SF X Tekken we’ve tried to merge the two of those together so that we retain some amount of what we see in Street Fighter - waiting for your chance to attack – while at the same time adding what you get from Tekken, which is more aggressive and in your face.

“We think we have found a way, and we are going to continue refining a way to mix these two together so it feels both simultaneously like a Tekken game and Street Fighter game, yet something completely new.”

People are probably wondering what would happen if the Street Fighter IV team got their hands on Tekken characters: what the world would look like, how the characters art would play out; how it would feel.

“Our goal was not to just copy the controls of Tekken, but to also give it an extra layer.”

As far as environments go, what was shown during the demo went from campy – like fighting on a bridge with dinosaurs snapping at the air in the background – to dark, with a destroyed city as the backdrop as you fight in the street.

When it comes to the characters, players will be able to jump into SF X Tekken with ease, because the controls will be familiar. The basics are what you’d expect from Street Fighter: the aforementioned standard eight directions and six-button layout, and the traditional four buttons combo style of fighting in Tekken.

“This will allow Tekken players who have not played in a while to join into the fray and enjoy the same play style they may remember from ten years ago or so,” said Ono.

How this all came about

The fact that Street Fighter X Tekken is happening at all is miraculous. Ono explained how any of this came to be.

“Both of these have illustrious histories,” said Ono. “Street Fighter is 20 years old, Tekken is approaching its 20th anniversary, so there has always been somewhat of a connection between us. We talk to the Namco guys, we know them, we have dinner together and that sort of thing – so there has always been a personal connection.

“When we were taking a break between Street Fighter III and Street Fighter IV, Namco very diligently kept the campfire from going out. They kept stoking it and making sure the embers were lit so that people were still interested [in fighting games]. So, when we came back and did Street Fighter IV, it really got people interested in fighting games again. We essentially tossed some kerosene onto the campfire and got it nice and big again.

“So, when having dinner with Katsuhiro Harada shortly after Street Fighter IV came out, we started talking about making sure fighters stayed big, because if we walk away from [the genre] it’s going to go out again. We started talking half-jokingly about a collaboration thing, and it seemed like a good idea to both of us, so I said, ‘I’m going to back to my office and tell them I’m going to do this, and you go back to your office and do the same thing – coordinate watches now.’

“So we did it. We’ve got ours going and they’ve got a similar game going on their side as well, and we’re going to see what happens.”

When it comes down to how well the two games will do at retail, there’s no monetary bet that exists between Ono and Harada as far as who’s going to sell the most. Surprisingly, the loser won’t have to mow the others lawn in a dress in a tutu, but, “Whoever ends up doing better in the marketplace will buy the booze and food whenever we go out drinking together,” said Ono.

Sharing materials with Namco

Be clear. These are two games. Tekken X Street Fighter is a different thing.

“Harada has zero input into this particular project and we don’t actually do a lot of communicating regarding our development of this title,” admitted Ono. “As a matter of fact, once the embargo listed for this is up, and everything gets out there, this will probably be the first time he hears about any of this. He has less knowledge about it right now than you guys do.”

There were certainly some communications early on between the two creators though, and traditionally with a project such as this, Capcom would be obligated to purchase any sort of reference materials the team might need for Tekken from Namco.

Harada and Ono, though, have worked out something between them.

“Capcom can sometimes be a bit cheap and not want to put money into [purchasing assets], and they certainly don’t want to give money to a competitor,” Ono joked. “So we work out some backroom deals where I will talk to Harada-san privately and he’ll lend me some material that we should technically be buying, and stuff like that.

“Of course, I also don’t tell him exactly why I need these materials. He has no idea what we’re up to at all.

“But when it comes to the specifics of this game in particular, he has no input and we have none in his as well.”

3DS, NGP?

As far as bringing the game to 3DS is concerned, Ono said there are no specific plans at the moment, and any comments he made previously regarding such a possibility were “not as specific as it was portrayed.”

“It was more about whether we would consider doing more fighting game stuff on 3DS, not specifically this title as a possibility as well,” he explained.

“I am happy to bring any game to any platform if people are interested.”

“We think we’ve shown what we can do potentially with fighting games such as Street Fighter IV on 3DS, and we’re interested in taking that further from here on in. Whether it would be this particular game or not depends entirely on whether there are enough 3DS players that want to play it on the handheld, obviously, but certainly we do not have specific plans at the moment.

“When it comes to Sony’s handheld, the NGP, the same thing applies. We really want to see what users think of that machine, what kind of games they are interested in playing on it, and we have to talk to Sony to see what kind of games they are interested in having on it.

“It’s still very early to say. All platforms are open and the sky is the limit. I am happy to bring any game to any platform if people are interested.”

The ultimate goal

But what’s the point in all this? Money? Partly, obviously. But Ono is a man prone to travelling the world with a small Blanka, a developer who’s eyes sparkle when he talks of pouring “kerosene” on a genre. The goal is to innovate, and, as you can imagine Ono dreams of, to facilitate the ultimate fighting game face-off.

“I will tell you what we are aiming for – what will happen in the end is another question,” said Ono.

“Hopefully we’re going to construct this game in such a way that we’ll be able to track fans from both sides. We’re not just trying to throw some Tekken characters into Street Fighter – otherwise we could just call it Street Fighter IV: Some Other Edition and call it a day. We are really looking to make something new and different with this.

“What I would love to see at some point is some tournaments between the top Tekken players and the top Street Fighter players actually getting together and duke it out on this game. That would be the ideal ending to the story.”

Street Fighter X Tekken is slated for PS3 and Xbox 360, with a release date yet to be determined.

]]>http://www.vg247.com/2011/04/12/ko-street-fighter-x-tekken-in-captivate-super-smash/feed/14Tekken producer: Arcades are “quite extinct” in the US and Europehttp://www.vg247.com/2011/03/21/tekken-producer-arcades-are-quite-extinct-in-the-us-and-europe/
http://www.vg247.com/2011/03/21/tekken-producer-arcades-are-quite-extinct-in-the-us-and-europe/#commentsMon, 21 Mar 2011 22:08:23 +0000http://www.vg247.com/?p=157610Tekken series producer Katsuhiro Harada has rung a death peal over Western arcades, but feels classic fighter games have a strong future both in and outside Japan.

“In previous versions [of Tekken], we had a few units installed in North America and Europe,” told Edge.

“We would be very happy to come sell our cabinets if there were places for them, but arcades are quite extinct in those markets. So for the moment it is true that [Tekken Tag Tournament 2] is very much focused on [Japan, Asia and Oceania].”

But arcades remain an integral part of Namco’s vision for the series, despite the difficulties.

“[The arcade] is indeed a very hard place to be, especially these days. The consumer world is a place where you buy a game once and that’s it. The arcade is about a coin, a 100 yen coin. If a game feels bad on your first play, it’s over. This is a very harsh but great place to learn. … You can’t find any better testers than the people in those arcades because they understand those issues very well.

“… You release a strong concept first and let it be beaten by users. What remains is something that has been polished and rounded on the corners and edges. That result is what you want to bring to the consumer world, it is our way. So yes, the arcade is a very important place for us and especially for this franchise.”

Harada said fighting games definitely went through a boom. He added that Tekken and Virtua Fighter ruled the roost during Street Fighter’s long silences, but Yoshinori Ono studied Tekken before embarking on Street Fighter IV.

“Fighting games are very severe as half of the players will loose automatically. SFIII was almost bringing that to 80 per cent. It was seen as the best 2D fighting could offer but it was very much exclusive to a few.

“… That’s why when SFIV came out, it wasn’t the continuation of SFIII, it went back to good old SFII. Ono-san told me that during those ten years of silence, he studied Tekken to understand the reason for its popularity. So he realized that [Street Fighter] needed to be simpler, to leave an open door to new users. That is why SFIV is so successful today.”

As for the future of the series, Harada is optimistic; while commenting that “Americans are quite good at Street Fighter while Europeans are better at Tekken”, the producer confirmed the series has a strong user base outside its home territory.

“The fact is Tekken is gaining lots of popularity outside of Japan today. I think 90 per cent of our users are outside the country.”

Tekken Tag Tournament 2 is the next entry in the series, and direct sequel to the 2000 PS2 original. It uses a new engine developed since Tekken 6, and will release on networked cabinets in Japanese arcades this summer, with console and international releases to be confirmed but expected.

]]>http://www.vg247.com/2011/03/21/tekken-producer-arcades-are-quite-extinct-in-the-us-and-europe/feed/0Tekken Tag Tournament 2 interactive levels, items detailedhttp://www.vg247.com/2011/02/11/tekken-tag-tournament-2-interactive-levels-items-detailed/
http://www.vg247.com/2011/02/11/tekken-tag-tournament-2-interactive-levels-items-detailed/#commentsFri, 11 Feb 2011 01:30:31 +0000http://www.vg247.com/?p=147125The Iron Fist is set for a bit of a shake up in its latest instalment, Tekken Tag Tournament 2. Famitsu has detailed interactive environments and the return of equippable items and weapons.

According to an Andriasang translation, the latest Famitsu outlines the sequel’s “Stage Gimmick” system.

One example had a player mercilessly thumping their opponent’s head against a wall, which then breaks, depositing the character in a new area – where unfortunately, the other half of the tag team was waiting.

Players will be able to equip characters with items, some of which can be used as offensive weapons, including a bat and a “hammer head” – which is precisely what it sounds like.

Tekken Tag Tournament 2 is arcade-only at this time, with the board due to hit Japanese venues over northern summer.